Quan Yin Method
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The term Quan Yin Method was coined in the 1970s by Suma Ching Hai, a controversial spiritual teacher, to describe the type of meditation that she herself practices and teaches. The spelling is an idiosyncratic romanisation of a Chinese term said to be in English translation: “contemplation on the sound.” The method is identical to Surat Shabd Yoga[citation needed]. According to Ching Hai, the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, popularly known as Guan Yin by many Chinese Buddhists and Taoists, practised this form of meditation to become fully enlightened in ancient times.
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[edit] Doctrine
Ching Hai maintains that the sound meditation is the only avenue by which a person can become fully enlightened, or God-realized. She maintains that the method is independent of any particular Teacher, noting however that not all teachers qualify to impart it. Surat Shabd Yoga is the traditional Indian name for this method.
According to the Ching Hai, there are five basic levels of enlightenment, each containing many sub levels. Ching Hai and her followers claim that only the Sound (Yin) can bring a person back to the true seat of the soul, at what they call the “Fifth Level” of consciousness (Sat Loka [hindi]/Sat Khand [Punjabi]: "True World"). Ching Hai is in agreement with other sound meditation teachers[citation needed] in describing a cosmology of five basic levels, and noting the importance of having a fifth level Teacher (one could only reach the spiritual level of who they follow).
Ching Hai says that each of these five levels are so vastly superior to the preceding one, that whenever someone reaches the next level he or she is immediately convinced that nothing in creation could be greater, and that the ultimate God realization has been achieved. Only a true master (from at least the Fifth Level) possesses the wisdom and power to liberate souls and bring them back up to the souls' true home at the Fifth Level, according to this theory. Meditation without a fully realized teacher is said to be unlikely to lead to beyond the "three worlds", where one is still affected by karma.
[edit] Cosmology in Detail
[edit] The first level
The first level of enlightenment, according to the Quan Yin doctrine, corresponds to the subtle, or “Astral” level of heaven. It is said to be the emotional level. The Astral level is made up of many varied sub-levels. Souls at this level occupy the astral body, which is limited by emotional laws, not physical.
[edit] The second level
The second level of God-knowledge is the “causal”, or intellectual level. At the causal level, the soul is only encased by the mind, and is no longer the slave of emotion. The Physical, Astral and Causal levels make up the "three worlds" of Hinduism. Although the Astral and Causal levels might seem increasingly magnificent according to human conception, the three worlds are said by Ching Hai to be governed by negative power.
[edit] The third level
Beyond the three worlds the soul is said to be liberated from the authority of the negative power. It is not required to enter again, but may if it wishes to perform good works in order to climb further into the spiritual heir achy. At the third level the soul is liberated, but not completely realised, that is, it still "believes itself to be something which it is not" according to Ching Hai.
[edit] The fourth level
At the fourth level, the soul is said to be highly realised. Many teachers of mankind have been enlightened to this level according to Ching Hai. At the peak of the fourth level is a vastly dark region, like a pitch black city night. The only light comes from the souls existing here, which are waiting for a chance to encounter a master to show them how to enter the fifth level. The fifth level cannot be entered on account of any merit gained as can the levels below it. A fifth level soul must accompany a soul wanting to enter this level.
[edit] The fifth level
The fifth level is the origin of all souls in creation. Here we are promised eternal happiness and unchanging joy and here we have absolutely reunited with our essence as created beings.
If beings from the fifth level were to attempt to rise above their origin, they would purportedly lose their individual conscious identity and become the original unlimited potential. The intention of Ching Hai's creator-god, however, is that we would retain our individuality. To maintain individuality from the undivided substance of this god, a container of some degree is necessary- though it might be a different from our concept of a “body”. Mental concepts are claimed by Ching Hai as difficult to relate to the fifth Level.
[edit] Beyond the fifth level
According to Ching Hai, the ninth level is the final degree of cosmology in the Quan Yin Method.
[edit] Metaphysical Method
The Quan Yin Method is said to involve a spiritual transmission from a Fifth Level Master in which a person’s third eye (located in the center of the forehead) is opened, supposedly allowing him or her to see and hear on higher spiritual planes.
According to Ching Hai, the third eye is the window to heaven, allowing a person to connect with the Word and enter samadhi through sincere concentration at that point. She teaches that it is really located at the center of the brain, but focusing attention in the middle of the forehead is how a person may access it. The location has been linked by others to the Pineal gland.
It is said by Ching Hai that it is possible for a persistent meditator to open his or her own third eye through personal effort, and thus attain samadhi, but she does not advise that. She claims that self-effort can only get a soul partially enlightened (probably up to Second Level at the most) and leaves the meditator vulnerable to the negative power, or Maya.
In Quan Yin literature, maya is the force of illusion in creation that causes suffering by entrapping the soul in a mind. It is personified by the Devil and is said to be the reason why human souls no longer experience the bliss of oneness with God. Master Ching Hai maintains that only a true Master, like herself, is able to protect a soul from the countless pitfalls and tricks that Maya can present during meditation. Without such protection, she says, no soul has any chance of ascending all the way to the Fifth Level.
[edit] Initiation
Practicing the Quan Yin Method requires an initiation from a Fifth Level Master, according to Ching Hai, although she hasn’t said if there are any other “Masters” out there who are qualified to perform initiation besides herself. During the initiation procedures, the students are instructed on how to meditate, then required to meditate together as a group, at which time a kind of spiritual transmission is allegedly made in which the students are said to experience “immediate enlightenment” with the opening of the symbolic third eye. This immediate enlightenment supposedly includes experiencing the sounds and sights of heaven and feeling uplifted.
Sometimes these initiations are performed en masse, immediately following a public lecture of Ching Hai’s. Other times, they are carried out in small groups by a representative of Ching Hai, without her being physically present. According to Quan Yin practitioners, Ching Hai’s power is everywhere and so it is not necessary for her to be physically present during the initiation.
For a person to be accepted for initiation, her or she has to agree to meditate two and a half hours a day and obey the five precepts, taken from Buddhism. The precepts are:
- Refrain from taking the life of sentient beings.
- Refrain from speaking what is not true.
- Refrain from taking what is not yours.
- Refrain from sexual misconduct.
- Refrain from consuming intoxicants.
The first precept requires that the student maintain a strict vegetarian diet. Eggs are also not allowed because that is still considered “killing.” Abstaining from intoxicants entails that the Quan Yin student does not drink nor smoke. Pornography and gambling are also cautioned against.
[edit] Ching Hai's use of the Quan Yin Method
Ching Hai says that the Quan Yin Method is a practice, not a religion, and therefore does not call for initiates to leave their current religions and “convert” to Quan Yin. She says that whatever religion a person is in before initiation can be continued, with Quan Yin meditation and observance of the precepts added onto that. Master Ching Hai herself was a Tibetan Buddhist nun for ten years after she claimed to have became fully enlightened in the Himalayas
She continued to dress like a Tibetan Buddhist lama until around 1990, when she started wearing her own fashion designs. Ching Hai currently makes her living independently as an artist and fashion designer[citation needed].
Her paintings, clothing line, jewelry, and other artwork are available to the public at a considerable price. Criticisms of Ching Hai tend to focus on the fact that her disciples buy much of her artwork, which they see as indirectly donating to her.
